


But I Missed You

by supercali



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Roblivion, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-10-09 21:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10421676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercali/pseuds/supercali
Summary: When Liv returns, it's not just Aaron she's missed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a result of a prompt from @dingledsugden on tumblr where Liv also missed Robert when she returned from Ireland. I hope this works :)
> 
> I've set it a year from now (mainly so Liv could travel alone) and in my little corner of the world nothing happened with Rebecca.

“Robert!” He stops in his tracks on the street outside the cafe as he heard Aaron calling him. He hadn't seen him all day, he’d been stuck in meetings for the haulage yard. He'd not even had time for lunch hence the stop at Bob’s.

“Hey.” He frowned at the look on Aaron's face. He looked a weird cross between angry and scared. “What is it?” He thought he'd got quite skilled at reading Aaron's moods, especially over the last year since his release from prison but he couldn't work out what might be causing this.

“I just spoke to Sandra.”

“Is Liv alright?” Robert was sure he felt his heart skip a beat. “Aaron?”

“She left…Sandra said she told her she was coming home and she left for her flight yesterday evening. She called to make sure she got here safely.”

“Have you tried calling her?” He was trying not to panic, it wouldn't do any good, it wouldn't do Aaron any good.

“Of course I have! I'm not stupid!”

“No…right well keep trying her and I'll find Gabby. Those two are still thick as thieves.” He started walking towards the café. He was pretty sure that’s where she'd be, there wasn't much else for teenagers to do in the village during the school holidays.

Five minutes later he found Aaron pacing up and down outside the pub, phone pressed to his ear. He passed him the cup of tea he'd bought him and headed for one of the benches.

“You stopped for coffee?” Aaron was incredulous.

“I haven't eaten or drunk anything for hours. Give me a break.”

“Fine. What did Gabby say?”

“She texted her and said she was coming home, said she'd had a row with Sandra. I'm guessing Sandra didn't mention anything about that?” Aaron didn't say anything, just put down his cup and pulled his sleeves over his hands. Robert reached out and rubbed his back, trying to reassure him. Even a year after what he'd gone through in prison he still got moments of panic and worrying about his sister would no doubt have an effect on him.

“If anything happens to her…”

“Hey, this is Liv we’re talking about.”

“She's sixteen!”

“Yeah and she's smart. I know damn well she's smarter than I was at that age.” At Aaron's raised eyebrow he huffed a laugh. “Shut it Dingle.”

“How are you not worried?”

“Do you really think that? After all this time you think I don't care about her?” Robert couldn't believe it, he thought they were past this. “I love Liv, you know that but freaking out isn’t going to help. Try her again.”

“It's going straight to voicemail. What if…” He didn't have to finish his thoughts, Robert knew what he feared could happen.

“One thing I know about Liv is that she can defend herself. I have firsthand experience!” That at least made Aaron smile.

If anyone had told him a year ago that he’d miss the holy terror who had kneed him in the balls, he’d have laughed in their face, but the place had been too quiet without her. When she'd gone to Dublin the last time the year before Robert had missed her but he and Aaron had needed the time alone and when she came back they had become a proper family in their new flat and they'd all made the place their own. It had been much harder without her this time.

“You know I did this once.” Robert starts talking thinking he can distract Aaron from worrying for a bit.

“What took off without a word and scared the crap out of people?”

“Yeah, well, not quite but almost. I told you I went to live in Spain with my Gran after Mum died?” Aaron nodded his eyes becoming soft as they did whenever Robert mentioned his Mum, “When I came back, I told Gran I was coming, I did, but her memory wasn't that good so I suppose she got muddled. She rang Dad in a panic and of course I was nowhere to be seen because I planned to see a couple of mates on the way back, which I told her. Dad was furious when I got back.”

“He must have been worried?”

“Maybe. I think Vic was the only one truly glad to see me back though.” He’d felt so alone back then, ever since then really, despite having his family around him he had always felt like an outsider. That was why it hurt so much whenever Aaron seemed to believe he didn’t care about Liv. He loved her like a sister, and they were a family, something he hadn’t felt part of since he was a little boy. “Liv will be fine, I promise and when she turns up, you can ground her for as long as you like. Come on, let’s go home and we’ll keep trying. There’s nothing else we can do for now.”

Aaron nodded, although Robert knew he was stopping himself from going out in the car to look for her even though it was pointless. On the short walk back to Mill he kept hold of Aaron’s hand, thumb gently rubbing his palm. He didn’t know what Aaron would do when Liv got home but Robert would have a hard time holding his tongue about what she’d put Aaron through. He told himself she didn’t know what had happened in prison, she knew something had but Aaron had begged Robert not to tell her, but even so worrying him like this, worrying them both like this was unlike her.

***************************

An hour later Aaron was still pacing and Robert had given up trying to stop him, in fact he was close to joining him, his own worry starting to take over. Aaron had called Sandra again but she’d heard nothing and Robert had called all the friends of hers that they knew of without success.

“Do you think...” Aaron stopped as the front door slammed. “Liv?”

“Hi. Why aren’t you at work?” She dumped her bag on the floor, suitcase seemingly abandoned elsewhere. “I was going to surprise you.”

“Where the _hell_ have you been?” Aaron couldn’t stop himself from pulling her to him and holding her tight, despite his anger at her.

“Er...Dublin.”

“Your Mum called Aaron expecting you to be here, said you left yesterday evening! We’ve been going out of our minds.” Robert was calming down now she was in front of him but he could see Aaron was still tense.

“Yeah, my flight was delayed…I left her a message! Aaron, I swear I left a message on her voicemail.”

“Why didn't you call us?” Robert demanded. He was angry, not at Liv but at Sandra for not checking before panicking Aaron.

“I wanted to surprise you, like I said and then my phone died. I'm sorry, Aaron, I'm sorry. I wouldn't…”

“No, of course you wouldn't.” Robert could hear the sheer relief in his husband’s voice and his whole body seemed to sag as it relaxed. “I'm sure your Mum didn't mean to worry us.”

“If she could ever learn to work her voicemail she wouldn’t have! I missed you.” She grinned at her brother and he tweaked her ponytail.

Robert couldn't help the feeling of being an outsider come over him once again as the two of them started pushing and shoving each other playfully. He felt in his pockets for his keys and his wallet and started for the door.

“Where are you going?” Liv’s face fell as she pulled away from Aaron’s tickling hands.

“To the pub, figured you two could do with time to catch up without me in the way.”

“What? Rob…”

“Spend time with your sister. I'll bring us some food back, yeah?” Aaron looked confused but nodded, happy to spend some time with his sister. Robert smiled at the two of them already bickering as he closed the door behind him.

**************************

Robert lay awake, listening to Aaron's soft snores, unable to sleep. He'd come back from the pub and the three of them had eaten and then spent the rest of the night watching movies, happy as ever, so he couldn't understand why he was laying awake. Slowly moving from the bed, checking he hadn't woken Aaron, he made his way into the kitchen.

He sat at the kitchen table clutching his mug of tea. Aaron always tells him it'll keep him awake but he's never noticed any difference. He can't help thinking back to those days when he came back from Spain, when Andy had been desperate for them to be friends again, his Dad's disapproval, the memories of his Mum. The only bright spot had been Victoria, hanging on his every word making him feel at home. He’d felt at home here as soon as they had moved in, the three of them all glad to be away from the pub in their own space, their own home and he relished coming home at the end of the day.

“Robert?” He looks up to see Liv standing in the doorway, hair flowing around her shoulders, pyjama sleeves pulled over her hands a habit picked up from Aaron.

“You all right? Fancy a hot chocolate?” She nods and slumps onto a chair as he busies himself with her drink.

“I know you're angry with me, couldn’t get out of here fast enough.”

He places her mug in front of her and grins as she wraps her hands around it just like Aaron. “What? I'm not angry Liv. I was, I'll admit because Aaron was panicking, but not anymore.”

“I just wanted to surprise you. I missed you both.”

“That's why I went to the pub so you could catch up with your brother, not because I was angry.”

“Yeah, thanks, but I said I missed you _both_! I know you’re old but jeez I didn’t think your hearing had started to go already.”

“Oi!” He was still sure he had misheard her, not that he’d admit it, because he knew she didn’t miss him like she did Aaron, why would she?

“You’re a right pain sometimes, and bossy, but I missed you...you listen to me.”

He looks down at his hands, “So does Aaron.”

“Yeah but he always wants to fix things, wants to make everything better and I know why, I do. He wants me to be happy, because he wasn’t as a kid, I get that. Sometimes though I just want to talk and want someone to listen and that’s all.”

“Some things you have to fix by yourself, you mean?”

“Yeah and that’s what you do. I know you’ll help me if I need you to but you know when it’s not what I want.”

“And here I thought you liked me because I slip you twenty quid when I want Aaron to myself.”

“Well there’s that. You’re annoying and you’re a bit of a nerd but you’re not a bad brother.” He can’t speak, his brain has frozen at her words and she laughs. “Finally! A way to shut you up.”

As she gets up from the table he grabs her hand and pulls her closer to him for a hug, waits for her to pull away but instead feels her relax like she does with Aaron.

“Get back to bed trouble, you’re on garden duty with me tomorrow.” He tells her letting her go, enjoying the look of disgust on her face. She hates gardening, but they all agreed on a rota when they moved in and at least half the time they stick to it and it’s usually brought into play when someone does something they shouldn’t.

“What?”

“Aaron left me in charge of your punishment for scaring us after you said he was soft the last time he did it.”

“I’m sixteen!”

“Excuse me but you made Aaron do all your washing up duty last month because he lost your phone charger. I can make it worse if you like?” He gave her his best innocent grin as she glared at him.

“I take back everything I said.”

“No you don’t! You love me really, everyone does in the end, just like I once told Aaron.”

“Fine but you’re not playing your music while we work, it’s ancient!”

“Thanks for that! All right, fine. Now go to bed.”

He watches her go, and shakes his head. She’s a pain sometimes but he loves her. He leaves his mug in the sink and heads back to bed, back to Aaron. As soon as he slides into bed beside him Aaron rolls over and wraps an arm around him.

“Where’d you go?” He mumbles into his chest.

“Get a drink, got talking to Liv. Go back to sleep.” Robert holds him, keeps him close as he feels his eyes start to close, his family safe and happy.

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr  @nooneelsecomesclose17


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